XD75RE Universal Layout

Keyboard layout for XD75RE ortholinear mechanical keyboard.

I had been using cheap membrane keyboard with my custom Universal Layout for years. It was good but not great. I wanted to push the limit of my keyboard experience, so I built my first mechanical keyboard based on ortholinear XD75RE chip.

The main purpose of Universal Layout was logical arrangement of similar symbols (e.g. ', ", `) in one place and to preserve positions of symbols in both English and Russian layouts.

In this layout I combined the main advantages of Universal Layout and spiced it up with new features like vim arrows, numpad-switching and media controls.

Key differences from traditional layout:

• Keyboard split into three parts with Numpad/Arrow block in center
• Keys with ,; and .: are placed separately from both sides of Space
• All common symbols are gathered in one key. Such as quotes, slashes and dashes
• Numeric row is swapped with symbols: to type number use Shift + symbol, e.g. Shift + @ = 2

Layer One

Layer Two

This layer are similar to Layer One, but Numpad is placed on Fn Layer. Quotes and slashes are moved closer to the center of keyboard. I personally like vim arrows and media shortcuts in the Fn Layer.

Alt Layer

Alt Layer contains some symbols for currency, math, arrows and rare letters. Keys that combine similar symbols (like quotes and slashes) are also powered by this layer.

🇷🇺 For Russian layout users:

• Символы Ё, Щ и Ъ помещены на Alt Layer и практически не вызывают проблем в наборе
• С помощью этого слоя всегда можно ввести символы [, ], {, }, < и >.

Installation

1. Copy .dll from sources folder to C:/Windows/System 32.
2. Run .reg files and reboot the system (or logout / login).
3. Select layout in Preferences / Language and Region / Language.

Known issues

For some reason Windows 10 occasionally changes layout back to default English or Russian layout.

To prevent this behaviour you could rename HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts registry entry named 00000409 and 00000419 to something else (e.g 00000409 → 00000409-off).

But it is a temporary fix and may break keyboard behaviour in some applications. Full impact is unknown and not tested by me.

Tools

• Layout design: Figma, kbdasm and KbdEdit.
• Firmware: QMK Configurator to create and QMK Toolbox to flash firmware.